Gray Magic

by Jennifer Snyder

  “You did great tonight,” Benji said. He sat on the bed beside me and brushed a few of my curls away from my face.

  “Thanks.” My eyes closed at the feel of his fingertips working their way through my hair.

  “You set out to do exactly what you wanted. You got Hazel to safety.”

  Safety. Crap. The book.

  I jolted awake and sat up, his words having pulled me from the lull of sleep. “I need to find a spell for cloaking Hazel. I can’t sleep yet.”

  My bag was on the chair at Benji’s desk. I forced myself out of bed on wobbly legs and made my way to it.

  “Can’t that wait until you get a few hours of sleep in you?”

  “No. I don’t know where he went and I don’t know how long he’ll be gone. I need to find something and set it in place. Now.” My words came out grumpy sounding, but it was only because I was so tired.

  I pulled the book free from my bag and flipped through its pages. Hadn’t I saw a spell on cloaking in here somewhere before? I could have sworn I’d read one on how to pull magic from the other side to cloak something. I continued flipping. It wasn’t long before I found the spell I’d seen before. While it wasn’t ideal, I knew it would work.

  “This.” I pointed to the page. “This one should work,” I said with a yawn.

  “I really wish you’d wait ‘till you get some sleep before you do any magic from that book,” Benji said.

  I glanced at him, hating the way he’d said that book as though it were evil.

  “I already said I can’t. Not until I know we’re safe.” At least for a little while. I didn’t know how long the spell would last, or if it would be powerful enough to hold up against Bram and whatever magic he held, but it was something.

  Benji tossed his hands up in surrender. “Okay. Fine. How can I help?”

  I skimmed the page, searching for what I’d need and praying I had everything.

  “Salt, something of Hazel’s, a handful of dirt from the yard, and five candles,” I said as I read. “I’m going to try to cloak both Hazel and the house, just in case.”

  “Can you do that with one spell?”

  “I don’t know, but it’s worth a shot.”

  Benji stood. “All right, I’ll get what you need.”

  He was out of the room in the next instant and back with everything I’d asked for before I had time to read the incantation fully. I loved his vampire speed.

  “Here’s everythin’ you needed.” He placed the items on his bed beside me, minus the dirt which he held in his fist.

  I scanned over them, double-checking what he’d grabbed. My nose wrinkled when I realized what item of Hazel’s he’d chosen.

  “Her hair?” I asked. “Seriously?”

  “What? I didn’t want to take her toothbrush or somethin’ she was gonna need in case this has to stay up for a while. Hair seemed logical.”

  “Does she know you have it? Like, you didn’t rip it out of her head, did you?”

  “No. I got it from her brush. I’m not an ass, I wouldn’t rip her hair out.”

  I chuckled. “Good.”

  I grabbed the items and moved to the floor of his room. According to the book, I was going to need to create a pentagram with the salt and then place the dirt, along with the strands of Hazel’s hair, in the center. After that, I needed to light the candles and place them at each corner.

  The only thing the book didn’t say was how long the spell would be in place. Was it like the strength spell where it seemed to last forever, or would it only last until the candles burned out?

  It didn’t matter. All I needed was a few hours of sleep, and then I’d figure out what to do next.

  I drew the pentagram on Benji’s floor with the salt and then placed Hazel’s hair in the center.

  “Put the dirt there too,” I said. Once he did, I lit the candles while repeating the incantation under my breath. “Though he may search, he will not find what it is that must now hide, with these flames and this salt, all seeking comes to a halt.”

  The flames of the candles flickered before burning brighter, signifying the spell was working. A sense of warmth uncoiled within my chest and I knew it was gray magic in my system.

  “Now that that’s done, it’s time to get to bed, my witchy woman,” Benji said as he hoisted me into the air. Thank goodness because every cell in my body begged for sleep. I leaned against his solid chest and allowed him to carry me to his bed without putting up a fight. I wasn’t sure I’d have been able to make it on my own. Exhaustion pulsed through my limbs, making them weak.

  Benji laid me on his bed and covered me with blankets. I took off my glasses and placed them on his nightstand as he stretched out beside me. When I lay down, I nuzzled myself into his side and closed my eyes. His arm draped around me, pulling me closer.

  “Sleep now,” he insisted.

  As though his words were magic, my breathing evened out. Clips from the night shifted through my mind as I drifted off. We’d rescued Hazel from Bram. She was safe.

  Everyone was. None of us had been hurt.

  I pictured Adele, smiling and happy because I’d kept my word. I’d saved her granddaughter from Bram, even if it was only for now.

  I was no fool. I knew this wasn’t the end.

  Bram would come for Hazel again and when he did, I hoped we’d be ready.

  The thought circled through my mind like an endless carousel before I finally gave way to the stillness of sleep.

  Thank You

  Thank you for reading Gray Magic, I hope you enjoyed it! Please consider leaving an honest review at your point of purchase. Reviews help me in so many ways!

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  Sneak Peek

  Ridley’s Story Continues In…

  Sometimes magic is the only answer...

  Ridley is hellbent on finding the amulet needed to take Bram down and keeping her promise to protect Hazel, but not everything goes as planned. When someone knocks from the other side, she must decide if tapping in is worth the risk with so much already at stake.

  Bram is coming, and Ridley quickly learns there's nowhere to hide.

  Locating the amulet is Ridley's only hope in defeating him, but there's only one way to do so--through the use of dangerous magic. Can she wield it without being consumed?

  Magic. Witches. And Danger. Book Two in the new spin-off series to the popular Mirror Lake Wolves by Jennifer Snyder.

  AVAILABLE NOW

  Chapter One

  Adrenaline rushed through my veins as I made my way to the unlit candles on Benji’s bedroom floor. The chill in the air let me know something wasn’t right the instant my eyes opened. Now, that same coldness urged me to get those candles lit again.

  No, no, no!

  My heart hammered as I stared at the blackened wicks. They were all I could focus on. I dropped to my hands and knees, careful not to shift the salt making up the pentagram, and grabbed the book on gray magic, pulling it closer. Thank goodness it was still opened to the right page. At least there was that.

  “You should have woken me up,” I snapped at Benji.

  My teeth bit into my bottom lip as I skimmed the instructions for the cloaking spell once more. Every step intensified my panicked state.

  “I figured you needed the sleep,” he said. The calmness in his tone made me glare at him from the corner of my eye. Didn’t he understand the candles going out meant Bram might find us? That he might find Hazel? “I thought the spell was permanent, or that it would at least last longer than the candles.”

  Benji scr
atched his head, and I drew my attention back to the book. Nothing written in the spell said it didn’t last longer than the candles, but I could feel it. The cloak had gone down when the candles snuffed out. I knew it had. The room felt cold—icy cold. Like someone had left a window open, letting in the winter wind.

  I adjusted my glasses as I read. My teeth continued to chew my bottom lip as a heavy sensation grew in the pit of my stomach.

  Would I need fresh ingredients, or could I reuse the old ones? Why had the candles blown out in the first place? Shouldn’t they have lasted until there was nothing left of them? Maybe that wasn’t how this gray magic spell worked. Maybe the entire spell was on a timer.

  I knew of other spells that only lasted for a certain amount of time; this spell probably wasn’t any different. It would have been nice if that had been specified somewhere. Why didn’t this book have more precise directions or footnotes at the bottom of each spell explaining things further?

  My skin tingled as I grew more worked up by the second. I seriously needed the cliff notes version of gray magic.

  “I’m sorry,” Benji insisted as he knelt beside me. His words were sincere, but they didn’t tame my frustration with him. “I didn’t think. I should have but I didn’t. You looked so peaceful I didn’t want to wake you. A little wiggly, but peaceful nonetheless,” he said, trying hard to make a joke that would lighten the mood.

  It didn’t.

  My gaze locked with his warm brown eyes. The sight of his guilt reflected there melted my anger toward him. I exhaled a slow breath, knowing it wasn’t fair to flip out on him because I didn’t know the magic I was using well enough to figure out the time limits of its spells.

  “It’s okay. I should have said something before passing out,” I said. The guilt swirling through his eyes didn’t dissipate like I’d hoped. I forced my face to soften. “How long have the candles been out?”

  Please say not long. Please say not long.

  He scratched his neck, and I knew instinctively I wasn’t going to like what he was about to say. “An hour at most.”

  My breath hitched. Crap! An hour was too long. It was more than enough time for Bram to find us—to find Hazel. Chills slipped along my spine. My stomach twisted with so much dread I felt as though I was on the verge of either passing out or puking.

  There was a real possibility Bram was on his way to us right now.

  “Nothin’ happened though. Everyone is fine. Hazel included,” Benji insisted. “I’ve been awake the whole time. We all have except for you and Hazel. Vampires don’t sleep, remember?” He smirked.

  I couldn’t return his smile. The unease and panic twisting in my gut wouldn’t allow it. Instead, I grabbed one of the candles nearest me so tightly my knuckles turned white. All I could do in this moment was get the cloak back up. That, and force myself to believe Bram hadn’t been able to pinpoint our exact location yet.

  I glanced at the book again, reading over the incantation in my mind once more before speaking the words out loud.

  “Though he may search, he will not find what it is that must now hide, with these flames and this salt, all seeking comes to a halt.” My voice shook as I said the words, but I kept my focus on sending up a powerful cloak.

  I lit the candles with the intention of cloaking both Hazel and the Montevallo mansion front and center in my mind. My lungs froze as I waited for a sign to signify the cloak was in place again.

  Please let this work. Please let this work.

  As before, the flames of the candles flickered and then grew brighter. The chill I’d felt upon waking fled the room, and I was sure the cloak was in place again.

  Thank goodness.

  I leaned back, sitting on my heels, and felt the muscles of my body relax while I gave gratitude it had worked without the need for new ingredients or needing to redo the entire spell from scratch.

  The warm sensation that came with using gray magic uncoiled inside me and spread outward, working its way through my body. I closed my eyes and focused on it, enjoying the feel as it traveled through me. I was slowly becoming used to it. My hand pressed against the area where it congregated—the center of my chest. It built beneath my skin there, sending flickers of warmth to brush against the palm of my hand.

  “Are you okay?” Benji asked.

  His question snapped me to the present. I opened my eyes and glanced at him. “Yeah. I’m fine. Just focusing on what I’m feeling.”

  “What do you mean?”

  I contemplated how to answer him while keeping my hand pressed against the magic beneath my skin. “It’s like a warm sensation buzzing through me.”

  “From what? The spell?”

  “The magic.”

  He arched a brow, already going into high alert for my well-being. “Did you feel it last time?”

  I nodded. “It’s stronger this time, though.”

  “Is that a good thing?” There was concern in his voice. This conversation had him uneasy.

  “Honestly, I don’t know.” I dropped my hand to my side and shrugged. “Maybe it means the magic is getting used to me?”

  Was it weird to think of gray magic as an entity? Maybe. But, somehow it fit.

  “Could be,” Benji said. His brows pinched together. Something shifted in his expression and it had me believing he wasn’t as uneasy as I’d thought—but instead seemed to be struggling to understand.

  Him and me both. I still wasn’t one hundred percent sure how gray magic worked.

  I ran my fingers through my curls. From the way they snagged multiple times before I reached their ends, it was clear I looked like a hot mess. I must have tossed and turned hardcore while I’d slept, which was odd. Generally, I was a sound sleeper.

  Clips of a nightmare slithered to the surface of my mind. One that starred Bram. In the nightmare, he’d transformed into a flock of crows who tried to eat me in order to get to Hazel.

  From the corner of my eye, I noticed something fly past Benji’s bedroom window. My heart kick-started inside my chest.

  Was it a bird? What if what I dreamed hadn’t been a dream at all? What if it had been a vision showing Bram had found us when the cloak went down and now he was here for Hazel?

  I stepped to the window. I needed to see—to make sure—there was nothing out there.

  “What’s wrong?” Benji asked. He followed me to the window. “You look all sorts of freaked out and your heart is beatin’ like a damn jackhammer.”

  I wrapped my arms around my midsection when I reached the window. My gaze drifted to the ground below, searching. Nothing. There was nothing there. Not even a single bird in sight. At least none I could find.

  Still, I didn’t feel any better. Knowing the cloak had gone down during the night would have me on edge for a while.

  “Sorry. I just remembered I had a crazy dream about Bram and thought I saw something out the window,” I said.

  Benji moved closer. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against his solid chest. Though his touch was cold, it was still nice to be held.

  “Everythin’ is fine. The cloak is back up. Bram isn’t here. The cloak wasn’t even down for long, and there’s a good chance he might not have been searchin’ when it fell. He might have already given up by then. Don’t worry so much.” His lips pressed against my neck, lingering on my skin for longer than they should given how erratic my heart was beating and what the sound of it must be doing to him. When his tongue darted out to skim across my heated skin and his kisses trailed to my earlobe, I closed my eyes and melted against his solid chest. Tingles slipped through my core from the feel of his lips on me. “Relax. Even if he did locate us, we’ll handle it together.”

  I exhaled a slow breath. While I knew this was true, it still didn’t ease the worry festering inside me.

  “Telling me not to worry is pointless because it’s easier said than done,” I insisted as my fingertips brushed against the coarse hairs of his forearms. “I’ll only feel better once I know Bram ha
sn’t found Hazel. Speaking of, is she awake yet?”

  I wondered how she’d faired spending the night in a house full of vampires. Hopefully she’d gotten some sleep.

  “Yeah.” His lips left my neck, but his arms remained around me. “She woke a few hours ago. She was in the kitchen with Ivette last I checked.”

  I pursed my lips together to keep from scolding him again for not waking me earlier.

  “How does she seem to be handling things?” I asked, trying to focus on her situation and well-being instead of my failure.

  “Seems okay to me. I’m sure she has questions and probably feels antsy to figure out what our next step is like the rest of us, but as for spendin’ the night in a house filled with vampires and processin’ all she’s learned recently, she seems to be doin’ well.”

  “Okay. That’s good,” I said even though part of me wondered if she was handling things so well because she was in a state of shock. It seemed logical. I imagined anyone who learned an evil guy wanted to murder them for their family magic they didn’t know they had would be. “I should check on her. Let her know that I’m awake. After, we should probably think about our next move.”

  Benji released his grip on me and I started toward his bedroom door. He grabbed my wrist, forcing me to a standstill before I’d taken three steps away from him.

  “Hey, let’s not jump straight to business, okay? You should eat first.” His lips quirked into a half-grin as he tipped his head to the side, his eyes never wavering from mine. “Do you even remember when you ate last?”

  I attempted to think back to my last meal, but it didn’t come to mind. I’d been running on adrenaline; food hadn’t been a thought.

  “I’ll eat while I think about our next move,” I said.

  My cell chimed from somewhere in the room, signaling I had a new text.